


Maybe Sometime, Somewhere

by butterflydreaming (chrysalisdreams)



Category: Cardcaptor Sakura, xxxHoLic
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-12 09:15:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/809892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrysalisdreams/pseuds/butterflydreaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When they first met, in times of yore, Clow thought Yuuko was a sweet, modest girl.  Yuuko thought Clow was a kindly magician. </p>
<p>Clow was a sorcerer who dealt from the bottom of the deck. Yuuko was a witch who made her own paths. From their meeting grew an inevitable affinity, but they were never anything so simple as merely lovers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Farfalla

**Maybe Sometime, Somewhere...**

 

 

Clow escaped the droning voices and the heat of the hall by slipping unnoticed out onto the balcony. The curtains fell back over the door behind him, open slightly so that he could keep listening to what was being said inside by the council -- mages whose chief ability seemed to be a talent for making interesting news dull. Outside, the air moved slowly through the sleepy summer day, stirring the leaves in the garden below. When he leaned over the stone wall, he saw a figure moving among the slim trees, thin as a sylph herself. She was gazing at a butterfly that had landed on her fingertips -- or at least, she seemed to be, since she was wearing a lace veil that covered her face and the shoulders of her long-sleeved dress. Clow removed his spectacles in contemplation, wiped them on the honorary stole that marked him as a member of the mages' council, and set them back again on his face. He leaned against the wall with more interest.

She was a twig of a girl, a maiden with a figure like a plumb line. Her plain dress fell straight to the brick pavers of the walkway without revealing any curves, the skirt belling out only because of the multiple underskirts beneath. It was a simple dress, only marginally finer than servant's clothing. He wondered whose daughter -- or granddaughter -- she was. The butterfly on her fingertips opened and closed its black and yellow wings as calmly as if it sat upon a flower. When she lifted her veil briefly to bring her lips close to it, her mouth moved as if she spoke to the delicate insect, and Clow witnessed a glimpse of a sharply pointed chin and straight, black hair. The butterfly fluttered away, and the girl turned, with reluctance it seemed to Clow, to walk down the path toward the castle. He watched her casually until she passed below the balcony and out of his sight.

For a few moments longer, he enjoyed the summer day and the faint scent of the Mediterranean that the breeze carried along. The voices from within changed cadence, and were accompanied by the shuffling sounds of moving chairs. As reluctant to leave his freedom as the veiled girl had been to leave the garden, Clow turned to rejoin the other sorcerers.

His eyes were slow to adjust to the darker interior that was illuminated with a watery mage light. With the use of a single Card, he could have made even the corners the hall as bright as the garden outside, but displays of the degree to which his Power eclipsed his "peers" made meetings with them awkward, so Clow refrained when he could. Instead, he endured the poor light and other discomforts without comment and as rarely as possible. He had only attended this gathering of the Diet because a witch with an exceptional talent was to make her appearance and be introduced -- and she was from the East, not China like Clow's mother, but Japan. That in itself was an intriguing detail, for two reasons. Firstly, because the borders of that island empire had been closed to travel for over a century, both for those wishing to enter and for those wishing to leave. Secondly, because Clow had spent some time there once, long enough ago that he had almost -- but not quite -- forgotten the language. Since being notified of this foreign sorceress's debut, he had been practicing its use again.

He could see her clearly by the time he had taken his seat. She had entered quietly and made her way to the empty chair in the circle that waited for her and seated herself with a demure calm. She was the girl from the garden, Clow smiled to see, and there was something about her that was as poised at that butterfly had been on her fingertips. Carefully, she lifted her veil.

Her skin was as white and smooth as fine porcelain, with a hint of pale blush on her lips and cheeks. She had magnificent lashes over eyes the color of tea in a glass cup. Framed in shining black hair, she had a face that showed hardly more than a dozen years. She glanced around the circle nervously, her eyes catching on Clow briefly before moving back down to her folded hands.

"Signorina Ichihara," said the session's Elder, "please tell the council how you came this great distance to meet us." He pronounced her name with difficulty, his native cadence making the name sing-song. Clow, itching to correct the Elder, bit down on his own tongue.

The young woman smiled faintly. "I came," she said in passable Italian, her voice shaking slightly, "by traveling the Aurora Path."

A flurry of questions broke out immediately from the mages in the hall. Their voices competed to be heard, and the young woman froze and began to shrink back against the plush upholstery of her seat. Her eyes grew wide, darting from questioner to questioner. She made a few attempts to answer, at first requesting that the mages speak more slowly, but as her confusion with the language barrier increased, she fell silent.

Clow leaned forward and pitched his voice with words that were quiet but cut through the din. "You will be all right," he told the girl.

Her innocent eyes drew to him immediately as she fastened onto the sounds of her native language. She relaxed slightly, with a visible sigh, and paid no more attention to any of the other voices. "You speak Japanese," she exclaimed with relief.

"Not very much, or very well," he replied. He offered a charming smile to calm her further.

The girl shook her head. "No, it's very good." She made an almost unnoticeable gesture with her expressive eyes, indicating the still noisy circle. Unable to glean answers from the source, they had begun firing questions among themselves, and several impassioned debates had already begun. "Can you help me?" she asked.

"They are asking," Clow offered, "who your mentor has been, for an explanation of the Aurora Path, the strength of your magic…" his attention was drawn away briefly, but then he continued, "…and that one has just postulated an arrangement of marriage."

"That hairy one?!" the girl exclaimed, aghast. Clow chuckled, and she was immediately embarrassed at her outburst. Covering her mouth with her fingers, she dropped her gaze to the intricately patterned rug.

"I'm afraid so," he said. "He is asking after your parents, with hopes to meet with them."

The council Elder broke away from an argument about astral projection and directed a loud question to Clow. "Dammit, Reed," he complained, "What are you saying? If you can speak the young witch's language, then act as translator!"

"I've been asked to serve as your interpreter," Clow said to the maiden while ignoring the Elder for a moment longer. "Will you allow it?"

"Please," she answered with relief.

The question and answer session began again, this time with more restraint. With the questions spoken one or two at a time, rather than a dozen at once, Clow did not always have to translate the question before the girl understood what was being asked. For simplicity, she answered in her native tongue unless her answer was a merely "Si" or "No". Since Clow knew several languages, he was also able to serve as intermediary for those mages, less adept at Italian, who slipped into their own English or French.

Over the next several hours, the girl explained that she could only travel on the mystical path alone, though she hoped someday to become strong enough to bring others along with her. She had been increasing in ability from a very young age, able to travel further and further. She had visited Italy several times over the last year, the reason for her novice grasp of the language, though only recently had she been able to make contact with the magic community. A very pointed question from the Scott with the big beard revealed that she was fourteen years of age.

When she began to flag, showing tiredness from the excess of attention, Clow again came to her rescue. He called an end to the questioning, saying that she had declared that she must return to her home. The girl had not said anything to that effect, but she did show gratitude when the sorcerers rose and reluctantly allowed Clow to lead her out of the hall. Once again in the fresh air and mild sun of the afternoon, she paused to rest on a garden bench. "What did you tell them?" she asked.

"That you had an appointed time to return," Clow revealed. "The council is reluctant to let you leave," he said. He stood nearby but at a comfortable distance, his shadow providing shade for her. "As am I," he added jovially. "I am hoping that we can continue to speak."

"It's true that I must go," said the girl with a slight shake of her head that set her glossy hair swinging under the lace. "I have already spent too much time in strange clothes and away from my home. But perhaps," she began shyly, raising her eyes to Clow through veiling lashes, "I may ask you one question?"

"Of course," said Clow with curiosity.

"It's… not a very polite question," warned the young sorceress.

Clow raised his eyebrows. Smiling, he sat down on the edge of the bench. "Ask it," he allowed.

The girl spoke in a rush of breath. "What is your parentage?" she inquired, blushing at the rudeness of it.

It was a query often asked of -- or about -- Clow, and he almost did not feel the sting of it anymore. "My father was of England, and my mother of the Li Clan, of China." He held no resentment toward the girl for asking. "You can call me Clow Reed," he offered.

"My name is... that is, you can call me Ichihara Yuuko," murmured the girl. "Maybe someday… perhaps sometime, I could visit with you again?"

"My home is in England," Clow explained. "It would be my pleasure if you would visit me."

"I have never been to England," Yuuko mused, "nor do I have anything of it." Her face held a seriousness beyond her years. "Do you have anything of your home, so that I may find you on the Aurora Path?"

Clow patted his clothing with a contemplative expression. "Nothing of my home," he said. Removing a handkerchief from a hidden pocket, he proffered it to the her. "But you may have this," he said.

Yuuko took the square of silk questioningly. "A handkerchief?" she asked. She held it in her small, open hand. It had a thin border of midnight blue embroidery, but otherwise it was just an ordinary white handkerchief.

"Do you know how to make it find me?" Clow inquired. There was a twinkle of mischief in his eyes that made Yuuko frown with distrust. She shook her head. "Fold it in half," instructed Clow. "And now fold it in half again. Think of finding me, and say these words." He gave her an incantation, which she carefully repeated.

_To seek an item, to seek a person, to seek a location --_

_guide my search… that which flies…_

_to the person I seek._

The handkerchief pulled itself into the shape of a tiny white bird, fluttering out of Yuuko's hand to land in Clow's lap. Yuuko made a small sound of delight.

He returned the handkerchief, merely cloth again, to her hand. "Will that do?"

"Yes," said Yuuko, marveling. "Yes, this will be just what I need."

. . .


	2. Days of Wine and Roses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuuko discovers booze.

Part 2

 

Yuuko felt a thrill of nervousness as she stepped off the Aurora Path and found herself in a narrow, filthy alleyway between buildings, but the little cloth bird led onward, and she followed. She was very glad that she had not worn her best shoes. She was thankful, in fact, that she was wearing geta, and that she had hitched up her kimono so that it did not trail on the ground. The path of the bird led her to an open street, and the bird landed on the windowsill of a tavern before collapsing limply into blue-bordered cloth again.

Yuuko stopped. It was definitely a drinking house; she could hear sounds of revelry from within. She had expected to find the sorcerer at his own home, which was why she was formally dressed in a kimono, but instead, she was in the center of an English (she assumed) village, standing outside of a public house! Townspeople were already staring at her from upper-story windows. Her temper flared. She picked up the handkerchief from its landing place on a sickly looking bush and tucked it into her obi, becoming annoyed further when she realized that her neckline had pulled open again. Her bust line, which had increased with her years, looked pleasing in the corseted dresses of Europe, but they were ruined the neat angles of all of her festival clothes. Yuuko ground her teeth.

The tavern door opened as a man stepped out, and she brazenly stepped through. She ignored the fellow's startled double take as she passed by him. Scanning the room, she quickly spotted Clow Reed. With his ink-black hair, he stood out like a go piece in a shougi set. He seemed to sense her gaze, because he looked up from a laughing conversation as she stormed toward his table. His eyes grew wide and he stood up from his seat.

"This was supposed to lead me to your home," she declared in injured tones, pulling the once-enchanted square of cloth from under her obi and throwing it at its owner's chest.

Clow smiled nervously. "Ichihara-san?" he asked.

Yuuko threw her hands up in exasperation. "Yes, of course it's me. What other Japanese witches do you know?!"

Befuddled, Clow silently offered her a seat beside him on the bench. Everyone in the tavern was staring at Clow and Yuuko. Equally befuddled, the energy from her anger dampened by so many staring faces, Yuuko wonderingly accepted the offer. As she began to sink onto the wooden bench, the other men at the table rose to their feet belatedly, waiting to sit again until the woman was seated. The offered spot was, thankfully, on an end. Her clothes were too confining to step over anything.

"Would you accept a drink?" Clow asked uncertainly, already signaling for service.

"Yes!" Yuuko said defiantly, as if her fellow sorcerer had just thrown her a challenge. She had tasted alcohol before. The target of her destination said something to the barman in English, and in a few moments a bewildered barmaid set a tall clay mug down in front of Yuuko that was filled with something dark and foaming.

"It's sweet but strong --" Clow began to warn.

Yuuko took a drink as if the mug were filled with cold water on a hot day.

She managed to not quite choke, and as Clow clapped her helpfully on her back, the mood in the alehouse started to relax. Drinking with the rest of them, she became something less foreignly frightening, just another one of Reed's odd friends. They went back to their tankards and their humorous stories, though Clow's fellows moved away slightly to converse among themselves and leave Clow to his strange company. Yuuko was still a subject of interest, but the open stares reduced to less and less frequent glances as she drained the contents of her mug.

"Have you… had hard cider before?" Clow asked. His expression was wary and amused. He looked down at her empty cup inquiringly.

"Never," said Yuuko, tossing her head in a way that made her loose locks swing across her cheeks. The beads and charms that dangled from her hair sticks clattered against each other. She was starting to feel a warm and lazy feeling flowing in her blood and making her cheeks warm. The air had been cold in the street, and the room of the tavern was heated by the blaze in a large, stone fireplace. She scowled at Clow Reed's smirk.

"I apologize for not being at my home," said Clow, while motioning to the barmaid to replace Yuuko's mug with another. He picked his handkerchief up off of the polished tabletop and tucked it into a pocket. "But I had no forewarning of your arrival. And it has been some time since I extended my invitation." He set an elbow on the bare wooden table and propped his chin against his fist, leaning so that he could study the young witch. New cider filled the empty cup; Yuuko took a long drink to avoid meeting eyes with the sorcerer while he assessed her. "You've grown a bit," he observed.

Yuuko saw the way he was actively not looking at her chest and felt her face get hotter. She toyed with her mug, turning the clay cylinder under her long fingers, and took another drink. The second serving was vanishing rapidly. She was starting to be able to taste the flavor of it, now that she had gotten used to its fire, and it had a pleasant taste, like apples and spices. "But you are well known for your precognition," she retorted finally. Something was wrong with her thoughts; they were uncharacteristically muddled. "I couldn't… it wasn't as if I could send you a message ahead." She looked at him and saw that his dark, amused eyes shimmered with contained laughter.

"So how are you faring, Ichihara-san?" the sorcerer asked pleasantly. "What has kept you from visiting me until this time?"

"I've been busy," Yuuko snapped. She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry -- I don't know why my mouth is running away with me. No, I --" she ran a fingernail along the embroidery of her sleeve, "I meant to come sooner."

Four years had passed before Yuuko felt confident enough to travel the long distance, using only the spelled handkerchief as a guide. She had long since stopped revealing to her parents where she went on her sorcerous excursions, and they had also given up on trying to control where she went. Though they were magic users themselves, fortunetellers, their powers held no comparison to their daughter's unusual abilities. It was not her parents' business if she wanted to visit a peer who just happened to be male, Yuuko decided. It wasn't as if she were seeking a mate. She had already turned down several marriage offers. Yuuko wasn't interested in becoming someone's good little wife.

Reed was still watching her with intense interest. He was impossibly brazen, she thought, to be staring at her so openly with that smirk of a smile on his face. The expression was incredibly aggravating. She had spent hours dressing and doing her hair, in order to make a good impression; she hadn't done it to be stared at, especially by someone who showed such little care in his own appearance. Even though he was neatly dressed, his hair looked like he had merely bound it upon waking. Judging from the little wisps that fell across his face, his hair had little acquaintance with comb or brush.

He was probably drunk, she thought. This is how he spent an afternoon, drinking in a public house and staring at respectable women with those dark eyes of his that looked deep enough to fall into and drown. The shape of that thought caused her to blink and look away. Why was she comparing his eyes to pools? And not ones filled with leeches, either.

That thought made her laugh aloud unintentionally. She quickly took another drink of her cider to cover it. Clow pushed off of the table and lifted his stein to drink. "So is this how you spend your time?" Yuuko asked before she knew what she was saying.

Her question earned a light chuckle from Clow. "I enjoy a drink in leisure and good company," he answered. "But you'll have an unfair opinion of me if you think that I waste my days in alehouses. They make a fine stew here," he added defensively.

"I'm sure," was Yuuko's wry retort. She giggled. Her mug was empty again. She looked down into her cup and wondered where it had gone. "I guess these cups are small," she murmured.

"And how have you spent your time?" Clow queried, seeming sincerely interested. For a moment, Yuuko remembered what she had liked about him in their first meeting: unlike most of the adult mages that she had met, up to and since then, he hadn't been patronizing to her because of her age and gender. She wouldn't say that he spoke to her as an equal, but he did treat her with a certain unprejudiced respect.

She replied without bravado. "I have been traveling, and learning," she said.

"Still no mentor?" Clow asked curiously.

"Everyone is my teacher," Yuuko evaded. "I've learned quite a lot of magic." She drew patterns without meaning onto the tabletop with the tip of one finger. "Everyone wants to teach something to a pretty girl with a talent." She looked meaningfully at the older sorcerer.

"I've done it myself," Clow admitted.

"But no one can teach me what I already know best," Yuuko continued.

Just as Yuuko had discovered the Aurora Path on her own, she had begun to discover how unique her ability to use it was. She had not apprenticed herself to anyone, because there was no one who could be her master. Her parents had trained her in scrying and tsujiura, but all the other magic that she knew -- spells like the location spell taught to her by Clow -- she had learned through observation in her travels, and from the users of magic that she had met.

Clow grew serious at her words. To sidestep any impending words of sage advice, Yuuko pushed the mug a few inches across the table. "May I have another?" she inquired sweetly.

The smile returned, but without amusement. "Perhaps something milder," Clow advised.

"Is what you are drinking milder?" asked the young sorceress.

"It's lager," Clow said with humor returning to his tones, "and yes, it is milder. You may, however, wish to know how it tastes, first." He pushed his beer stein toward his guest, and then propped his chin in his palm again, his upturned lips partially covered by his fingertips.

Warned by his look of amused expectation, Yuuko took a careful sip. It was odd -- and a little unnerving -- to be sharing a cup, but it was only for one small sip. The bitterness was no more than long over-brewed black tea; she refused to give him any satisfaction by making a face. "Thank you," she said. "I think I would like some."

She drank the bitter brew more slowly, in the amount of time that Clow drank two himself, yet still, when the sage advice began after all, she found that she again had an empty vessel. "Ichihara-san," Clow began, patiently, "it can be unwise to learn magic without a tutor. I have no doubt that you will exceed any training you are given, since you do have an unusual and exceptional magic. Still, there are certain foundations --"

"I know what I need to know," Yuuko interrupted, "about my 'unusual and exceptional magic'." She stood up quickly from the table. For a moment, the room swilled in Yuuko's vision. She had a sudden inspiration. "I'll prove it to you!" she said to Clow. She looked around, then headed toward the back of the alehouse, looking for a door other than the one at the front.

Clow had an inkling about what she was about to do, so he leaped up to chase after her. She was already pulling open a narrow door that led to the cellar. Luckily, the bartender was busy stoking the fire and had his back turned.

"See?" said Yuuko, wrapping a hand around one of Clow's wrists. An iridescent curtain filled the doorway with wavering colors. Yuuko stepped through, dragging Clow in behind her.

It would take too long to release a Card. All Clow could do was pull the little door shut behind him.

 

It was an interesting journey.

 

They spilled out into ankle-deep grass that was thick and green. Yuuko stumbled and fell onto her hands, releasing Clow as she fell; Clow tumbled and slid backwards on the sloping ground. A nearby cluster of sheep fled the sorcerous arrival in a noisy stampede of bleats.

They had landed in a pastoral scene, rolling hills dotted with clusters of sheep and deciduous trees. The sky was a pale blue, and a dusting of white clouds at the horizon mirrored the grazing sheep of the fields. The air was warmer than it had been in England, though by the placement of the sun, it was still afternoon. Clow sat up while Yuuko attempted to stand. His spectacles glinted in the sunlight while he watched her waver and sink down into the grass again.

"That was immeasurably foolish," he observed in a hard voice.

Yuuko looked at their surroundings, then looked at him. Though clearly angry, he had that same smile on his face. She shook her head in disbelief; the world swam around her. She wondered if she had caught a fever from England's cold air and lay down flat. She heard Clow sigh with controlled temper. "Don't worry," she said, "I can get us back, too." Tipping her face to the side, she studied the landscape again. "As soon as I know where we are." It was strange, she thought, that she hadn't been paying attention when she brought herself, and Clow following, out. She felt a little floaty. "Umbria," she contemplated under her breath. "Maybe Provence. Or…". A concerning thought made her sit up again.

Clow rose to his feet. "Wherever we are," he intoned, "it would be best if I fly us back." He removed a small, key-shaped pendant on a long chain from within his vest.

"I can get us back," Yuuko reiterated.

"It was an unsafe journey to begin with," answered Clow. "Ichihara-san, you are intoxicated. You're in no condition to be performing any kind of magic."

"Intoxi -- I am not drunk!" exclaimed Yuuko. "I find it offensive that you would say such a thing!" She stood up quickly on her words, and expelled a little whimper as Clow caught her before she fell on her face.

"I shouldn't have let you drink so much," Clow said. He spoke more softly, holding her shoulders lightly. "I apologize."

"I'm fine," Yuuko insisted. She plucked his handkerchief out of his clothes, made two quick folds, and cast the spell out. Through experimentation, she had modified the spell so that, instead of becoming a bird, any cloth that she used would take the form of a butterfly for shorter distances. It was a visual play on the word cho; written one way, it meant a short distance, while written differently, it meant "butterfly". She was fond of butterflies, and the alteration let her know how far she would need to travel. She smiled to see Clow's handkerchief take the butterfly form, now.

"What are you doing?" Clow asked.

"I'm looking for something that will tell me where we are." Yuuko straightened away from his solid presence and watched the enchanted butterfly wing over a close hill before dipping out of sight. "Come on," she urged. She made an unbalanced attempt to walk, and Clow put an arm around her back to steady her. "You don't have to carry me, Clow Reed!" she complained, although his stabilizing influence was a great help to keep her moving forward.

"I'm not carrying you. I'm keeping you from falling over." Together they made their way over the hillside.

On the other side of the hill, there was a road, well used and wide enough for carriages. A signpost, marking directions where the road came to a fork, was the landing place for Yuuko's butterfly. They walked up the road and read the writing on the signs. "Aha, I was right -- Provence," said Yuuko. She relaxed against Clow's shoulder with relief. "At least we didn't cross over dimensions."

Clow looked intently into her face. "What?" he asked.

When she turned her head, his confounded expression was startlingly close. She pushed away from his support. "I was afraid that we might have crossed into another world," she admitted with mild embarrassment. "It happens, sometimes. I explore a different branch of the Path and I find myself somewhere… Else." She turned her back to his disapproving shock and clipped further up the road. It was easier to walk normally on the hard packed ground, and she was starting to feel more herself again, she thought.

Clow caught up to her easily. "So there was a possibility of landing in a different dimension and you didn't pay attention to where we were going to end up? Couldn't this be another world's France?"

"No, I'm sure now that we're still in our world," Yuuko smugly answered.

For a minute, Clow silently fumed. "You think too highly of yourself," he said finally, "Ichihara-san."

Yuuko stopped in the road and turned on him with fire in her eyes. "When did you become as condescending as every other mage, Clow Reed? Of course I have confidence in myself! Why is it acceptable for you, Clow Reed, foremost of mages, to experiment with your 'unusual and exceptional magic', but I am expected to stay within the bounds of what is known?"

The sorcerer regarded her with stubborn anger. "Just Clow. You don't have to use my full name every time." Yuuko was pleased to see that his impish smile had disappeared. "I am not being condescending. I consider you a peer. I am giving you advice, as a peer."

"Then treat me as a peer! You can start by calling me Yuuko!"

Clow folded his arms over his chest. "All right," he said. "I will." The small key, dangling from its long chain, became his sun staff in hand. "Unless you're hiding Seven League Boots under your kimono, I am taking us back, to England, by means of my magic." His staff cast a long shadow on the road. "If you do not comply, you will require me to use force."

"By means of your magic," Yuuko echoed. "Because you, of course, haven't been drinking."

"I can hold my liquor better than you."

From what she could see, his statement was true, but Yuuko wasn't about to admit it. "How long will it take to fly back?" she asked. "At least several hours, I predict." Clow answered her with a skeptical nod, and she continued before he could speak. "It will take moments on the Aurora Path. Give me some time to.. um…"

Clow raised his eyebrows. The sparkle in his eyes was back. "Sober up?" he offered innocently.

Yuuko chose neither to agree nor to contradict him. "In the meantime, we can talk. That town up ahead is not very far. How is your French?"

"Allow me to at least call up a carriage," Clow said, pulling out a Clow Card. "My French is excellent. How is yours?"

"Rudimentary," Yuuko admitted.

A flick of the Create Card brought forth a cute, roofless carriage, complete with palomino that looked as real as any living horse. Clow stepped up into the vehicle and offered his hand down to Yuuko. "Then I can again serve as translator for you," he grinned.

 

Picking up the hem of her kimono with one hand, Yuuko accepted the assistance with the other. "Oh, wonderful," she mocked dryly. "That's just what I need!"

\- - -


	3. Yin and Yang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clow delights in dark, cold basements full of moldy scrolls. Yuuko has a different opinion.

Maybe Sometime, Somewhere  
Part 3 Yin and Yang

 

Clow studied the ancient but unfaded lettering on the scroll in the yellow lamplight with a gleeful look of satisfaction. Every few moments, he made a sound, a quiet “Aha!” or a musing “Hmmm”, nodding his head or drumming his fingers over his lips. It was starting to drive Yuuko crazy. The dusty little room, storage for the monastery, was cold, too.

“Is it what you were looking for?” Yuuko whispered. She was more than ready to return to the nice, warm hunting lodge where the evening had begun, where she had made the error of saying, “I could take you to it” when Clow had been verbally longing for a lost manuscript.

“Mm,” said Clow. He looked up with a gleam of teeth, a clear sign of pronounced happiness. Blinking, he adjusted his glasses and focused on Yuuko.

He had a Card that could make a double of anything; she wished that he would use it now. She also wished that she had accepted his coat when he had offered it. Though this room was deeply buried behind many walls, she was certain that she could nevertheless hear the shrieking of the winter wind raging outside. “Is it as you remembered it?” Yuuko prodded. 

Clow, who had gone back to reading, answered in distraction. “Not at all,” he said. “This isn’t the manuscript.” He looked up again. “But… it… is… fascinating,” he sighed lovingly.

“You mean we’ve been standing here for over an hour while you’ve been READING SOMETHING ELSE?!” Yuuko shouted.

“Yuuko! Your voice!” Clow warned in an alarmed hush.

The exasperated sorceress shivered from frustration with Clow, and frustration with the cold air. “We’re leaving!” she insisted, opening a Doorway. Without looking back to see if her cohort was following, she began to step onto the Path. She felt Clow’s arm at her waist, then around her waist, as he hurried to stay with her.

She was done with being cold, she decided. A favorite direction came into view, and she took it -- a branching that opened in the tropics, on an almost unpopulated island in the South Pacific, amid a cluster of narrow-trunked palm trees. She smiled as a wave of moist heat and filtered sunshine washed over her. In a moment, she had her shoes and stockings removed and in a haphazard pile. Picking up her long and trailing skirts, she ran with bared legs toward the beach. 

Her sigh of hedonistic pleasure harmonized with the shush of the calm surf. The ocean water, warm and pristinely clear, washed over her skin, flecking it with sticky white sand. She remembered Clow finally, and looked back for him. He was at the border of beach and palms, stripping a frond into strips and weaving the strips into a circle.

“Are you making a basket?!” she called back, perplexed. It would be just like him, she thought, to do something weird like that.

“A hat,” Clow called back. He began walking down to the waterline, palm strips stuck into odd places of his coat. He gradually added them to the form in his hands, weaving a shallow hat with a wide brim. “This sun will darken your alabaster complexion in minutes.” His fingers were nimble, and by the time he stood next to Yuuko, the palm hat was nearly finished. He smiled at her while he put the last wrapping at the edge of the brim, and then perched the completed hat onto Yuuko’s pinned hair. Though not a perfect fit, it was close. He then began a second palm creation for himself.

“I didn’t know you were so vain about your appearance,” Yuuko couldn’t help taunting.

“I prefer not to sunburn,” answered Clow, intent on the weaving of his hat. He looked at Yuuko from the corner of his eyes. “It’s hot, isn’t it?” he observed

Yuuko was obstinate. “I like it,” she said.

“I like it, too,” Clow answered, walking slowly back up the beach. Under the shade of the palms, he kicked out of his embroidered slippers and removed his canvas coat. Yuuko watched uncertainly while another layer followed, until Clow was simply wearing loose, straight-legged pants and the high-collared shirt that was tied with a sash at the waist. He then sat down on the sand with folded legs and wove the rest of his hat.

Yuuko silently cursed corsets, European fashion, and all men while she wondered how many of her own heavy layers she, herself, could remove. The heat of the island was too much for her dress, but if she disrobed she would only have a thin chemise to cover herself -- not a problem when she had been alone, but too little for mixed company. Since her arms were tiring from holding up her layers of skirt, she wandered back up toward Clow so that she could let them drop, hems dragging over the sand. They ballooned around her when she kneeled.

“I take it you’ve been here, before,” Clow speculated. “Where are we?”

“Seashells wash up on the shores of these islands,” said Yuuko. “As beautiful as they are, they’ve traveled into the hands of collectors; the indigenes gather them and trade them. The shells remember their origins,” she explained, picking up handfuls of the fluffy sand and letting it pour back through her fingers. “If an object remembers its home, I can find that place.”

“Without ending up in fathoms below,” the other mage supplied.

“I don’t end up inside of walls, either,” added the young witch. “Give me credit for some finesse, Clow.”

“I do respect your abilities, Yuuko,” he answered back. “I’m merely unclear on the details.”

There was nothing to say to that, so Yuuko shrugged. A warm trickle of perspiration tracked down the side of her face, from her hairline to her neck. Her corset itched. “I like the colors of ocean and sky,” she mused, attempting to wipe her sweat discretely. “In every place, the sky is different. Higher, or a different blue. And yet, it’s still the same sky,” she contemplated with a smile. “In this world, at least,” she added.

Clow exhaled a relaxed sigh. “A shame that I didn’t bring that scroll with me,” he mused. Yuuko cast him a dark look of warning. He smiled back innocently. “Or a chilled drink.”

Another salty rivulet coursed down her neck and into her tightly bound décolletage. “Here, here,” seconded Yuuko. Despite the discomfort of her clothing and the lack of refreshments, however, she didn’t want to leave the quiet island yet. She studied Clow’s clothing. “Untie your sash,” she commanded without preamble.

Clow blinked, and his mouth twitched, but without questioning her request, he unwound the long strip of dark blue silk from his waist, and handed it to her. She stood up and opened the cloth, checking its size. It was narrow, but long enough.

“Stay here, and don’t look,” she ordered before getting up and moving behind the thick cover of low palms nearby. She disappeared; several minutes of rustling followed; she stepped back out into the open, carrying her dress. She was wearing the cloth of Clow’s sash wrapped around her like a sari, though its short width left her legs bare from the knee downward. “Don’t stare,” she said, self-consciously.

Clow clucked his tongue against his palate.

“Don’t do that, either,” complained the woman.

“Merely a sound of appreciation,” Clow apologized. “You look quite fetching, Yuuko.”

She shook her satin dress and lay it carefully on a bone dry area of clean sand. “I was melting.” She continue to arrange the empty cloths, pointedly not looking at her companion. “You don’t think I’m fetching in this satin cage?”

She could hear the laughter in his answer. “Now, who’s vanity speaks?” he asked. He answered her question brazenly. “You are a very attractive woman, Yuuko, with or without your dress.”

Yuuko skipped back down to the cresting waves so that he would not see the flaming blush that she was certain colored even the back of her neck. She waded into the surf until the water dampened the hems of her makeshift sari. The sand underwater was only slightly more coarse underfoot, but large rocks provided homes for a bounty of fish and sea life. She let the sun wash over her; it was shaded by the green-smelling hat, but reflected up from the ocean’s surface. The water sparkled out to a blurring distance, ever breaking wave and undulating swell glittering like a jewel, so that the ocean glittered like a ball gown. Clear as aquamarines at her feet, it became a precious sapphire blue in the distance.

Clow splashed in the shallow waves beside her. He gave no attention to his pant legs, which were not only soaked from the sea’s depth but were also wicking the water upward. He squinted against the bright sunlight with bare eyes; he had left his spectacles in the protection of the rest of his clothing. “This could be Paradise, and we the only ones in the world,” said Clow. He rested his hands on his hips and gazed out with her at the view.

“It wouldn’t be so bad,” said Yuuko, amused. A breeze like a song pulled wisps of her hair loose and lifted them playfully.

“As long as one is not completely alone,” added Clow.

Waves moved over the sand, and the breeze shook the palms musically. A thumb-sized crab scurried over Clow’s toe. Yuuko broke a silence of many minutes with an unadorned statement. “I’ve left my father’s house,” she said, still looking out at the long strip of horizon.

Clow studied the calm but defiant lines of her face. She had the wistful expression that people often wore when looking out across a sea, and he wondered what thoughts were rolling and cresting in her mind. “Does it suit you?” he asked.

Yuuko considered before answering. “I am a sorceress,” she said. “A normal woman’s life is not for me.” She tucked some of the errant wisps back behind her ears. “And what would that life be? I’m almost to old to marry, even if I accepted anyone. I’ve been corrupted; I can’t see my life in so narrow of a view, when I have been to places far beyond the borders of that small world.”

“Age becomes irrelevant,” Clow said, digging toes into the sand.

“Something you can teach me, yet,” teased Yuuko. “How to keep my unblemished youth.”

“Oh, there’s much more than that, that I could teach you,” Clow flippantly answered back, with a roguishly level gaze. Yuuko laughed at his wolfish manner, which earned her a chuckle in return. “Why have you never married?” he inquired lightly but without joking. 

“You marry a man’s family when you marry the man,” the sorceress explained. Swishing her feet in the pleasant currents, she continued, “I can’t imagine explaining myself to my husband’s mother, and grandmother, and aunts. I have no interest in cooking or keeping house. I’d make a terrible wife.”

“And what of a man with no family?”

“Why not sleep under bridges?” Yuuko retorted without thinking. She realized to whom she was speaking when it was too late to catch herself. “I’m sorry,” she said, contrite and sincere. “And you?” she said, merrily to erase her mistake. “You’ve never married.” She dipped a cupped hand into the waves, hiding her intent. She caught Clow unexpecting with a splash of saltwater. He stumbled in the water trying to avoid the splash, nearly fell in, and lost his hat. It began to float away while Yuuko clapped her hands in laughter.

Wearing a smile of mischief, Clow swept Yuuko’s feet out from under her and a graceful hook of one leg. Her laughter transformed into a shout of dismay as she went over backward and landed on her seat, nearly up to her shoulders in the water. Laughing again, she slapped waves at him while she tried to stand. Clow retrieved his palm frond hat before coming back to help her up.

For a moment, Clow’s eyes widened when Yuuko came out of the water. He immediately turned away and stripped off his shirt, wrung out the ends and handed it back to her without looking. “Here,” he said, staring straight ahead of himself. “Cover yourself.”

Yuuko looked down at herself. The silk of Clow’s sash, her makeshift dress, was saturated, and it clung to every curve and contour of her body. Her personal topography was as apparent as if she had been wearing nothing at all. She quickly wrapped herself in the loose covering of Clow’s shirt.

“I think it’s time for me to go back to dry ground,” said Clow, sounding strained. He began wading out without looking back at Yuuko. “I think the crabs have taken an epicurean liking to my feet.”

“I need to dry,” said Yuuko, feeling shy but trying not to let that show. She walked out of the water, wincing. “Ow. I think I hit a rock when you tripped me.”

“I hope nothing is bruised…” Clow started to say, then stopped speaking abruptly. He increased his pace up to dry sand. He then made a show of casually lying down on the hot, dry sand and covering his face with his hat. He tucked his hands behind his head in the pose of someone who was at ease and relaxed.

“Pain in my… backside,” Yuuko grumbled as she sat down nearby.

“Transdimensional Witch,” Clow countered in a mumble.

Yuuko couldn’t help the smile that Clow always drew out of her. He was infuriating, but he was also… fun. She pulled off his shirt and tossed it onto his bare chest. In the warm air and on the sun-heated sand, her silk wrap was already drying. “You didn’t answer,” she noted.

“Answer what?”

Yuuko repeated her question. “You have never married, have you?”

Clow sighed almost imperceptibly. “No.”

Yuuko waited, but nothing more was forthcoming. She studied him surreptitiously, wantonly noting his pleasant physique. His lack of clothing revealed a better physical condition than she would have expected, and shadings of sand, stuck to his skin, lent a nice accent. He was, in a way, handsome, she supposed. She liked the way his hair spilled over the sand like spilled ink. It was always a little messy; she still found that annoying and distracting.

It was just like him, not to really answer her question. Clow was secretive; she always had the feeling that he left much unsaid. He kept most of his life hidden. She had yet to receive an invitation to his home; they met in public places, inns and the like. She wasn’t even sure of his age, though she knew his true age did not show.

Of all the people that Yuuko knew, Clow was the closest to her in power. They squabbled and bickered, but on an unspoken level, seemed to understand each other. Or, at least, Yuuko thought to herself, as much as anyone could understand the maddening person that was Clow Reed. It really was no wonder that he had never married. She wondered what it would be like, to have him for a husband. Sharing his bed. Sharing a life. She had not found a man that could induce her to marry, and Clow had remained unmarried for more years than his apparent age showed. 

“Maybe we should marry each other.” The contemplation didn’t sound as absurd as she expected. She didn’t realize that she had spoken it out loud.

Clow slipped his hat off of his face and turned to look at her. His expression was more serious than she had ever seen, and more open.  
… … …


	4. Choice of Path

Yuuko closed her eyes, letting the sensation of the ocean breeze playing over her body fill her focus. _Do a thing or don’t do a thing_ , she told herself. _No in between_. She was aware that Clow would be watching her, and she kept her eyes closed so that he could look at her openly. She waited. When she opened her eyes, if his expression remained the same, she would have to decide. Once she decided, she would follow through on that promise to herself.

“Open your eyes, Yuuko,” Clow said, and his voice was as soft as the sand moving in the wind. A seabird cried out somewhere over the waves. The susurrus of the surf against the shore rose and fell like breath. The sun shone on them both without mercy.

It would not be her first time lying with a man, but she was sure Clow would not think less of her for that. She knew him well enough, even if she did not know that aspect of him. She heard him moving, so she opened her eyes to see him brushing sand off his arms as he stood.

“There is marriage, and there is marriage,” he said with his typically equivocal manner. He raised his eyes to meet hers again, and still, that vulnerable openness remained.

Her arm, raised toward him, was her decision. Of course she could still make an edged comment to cut the mood, but if she did, she would never again turn down this path, and their friendship would remain as it had been. Her lips turned in a smile of invitation. “I’m really not the marrying kind,” she said.

Clow crossed the beach toward her. “Nevertheless,” he said, breathless with nervousness yet trying for his usual tone, “will… will you have me for the hour, if no longer?” He winced. “I swear that my tongue can be put to better use that wooing,” he added with a shaky laugh.

“You can fill an hour?” Yuuko asked, intrigued. “With more than talk?”

Clow looked offended. “At the least,” he proclaimed. “I’m a man of some experience.” His eyes narrowed, and not because he squinted without his spectacles. Emboldened, he captured her waist with his arm and pulled her close.

His hand traced upward along her spine, pulling their bodies together until her thinly clad breasts pressed against his bare chest and the bone of his hip made contact with its counterpart in hers. She was off balance until she leaned into him. Yuuko propped her arms against the ridge of his shoulders, loosely encircling his head with her bare arms.

The makeshift sari slipped down. Clow’s hands tugged at the slack silk until it fluttered down over her hips, the end trailing down and tickling her feet. He tucked his head into the crook of her neck, and when his lips touched her earlobe, Yuuko shivered in spite of the scorching sunlight. She stepped backwards to pull Clow into the cover of palm shade.

Things got wobbly at that point. Clow stepped on the end of the trailing sash that still wrapped around Yuukos hips. Yuuko stumbled, and there was nothing to grab but Clow, who was having trouble placing his feet, off balance with the sandy surface and the pull of Yuuko’s weight. Yuuko let out a yelp as they both half fell, half collapse down to the sand.

Yuuko sat back, leaning on her arms. Clow’s landing left him kneeling between her legs. He advanced over her sprawled, nearly naked body with kisses, catching the nipple of one breast with his mouth and tongue. He reached up and cradled her breast in his hand, sucking and pulling with his lips, making Yuuko catch her breath at the thrilling sensation. He moved off her nipple, his thumb taking over for his tongue, and continued kissing along the mound of her curving breast, up toward her neck again with airy, delicate kisses.

She slowly bent her elbows as his body aligned with hers. When she was on her back and her arms were free to roam, she reached down between their bodies and tugged at the strings of Clow’s pants. Her fingers wove in and she felt the knot come loose. Clow sighed. Yuuko ran her hands around to his back, her fingers under his waistband, intent on bringing him to an equal state of undress.

Now she, too, breathed in uneven surges. Clow’s lips moved along her neck, lightly sucking at her tingling skin from ear to collarbone. She laughed to ease the overwhelming tension of her lust, and, a little, at the absurdity of their situation.

“How many times have we been alone together,” she mused, her voice low with arousal, “and never… never…” She forgot what she had started to say, because she felt Clow’s responding interest pressing against her, and a mere tug at the cover of his pants would remove the thin barrier of cloth that kept their corresponding parts from touching. Her laughter bubbled up again at a silliness of metaphoric images popping up in her mind. Portals. Doorways. Doors. Knobs. He knocked, and she would let let him in.

Clow answered with only, “Hmmm.” He lifted his head and brought his parted lips down onto hers. His  tongue opened the way. Yuuko tasted his saliva mixing with hers. She mirrored the way his tongue moved with her own, exploring his mouth and the novel experience of a European style kiss. Their lips moved apart and he paused, swallowing. He wove his fingers into her hair. He brushed the tip of his nose against hers and gazed into her eyes, his expression serious, his pupils as wide and black as the abyss.

He seemed ready to say something to her, to impart some secret held back until this intimate moment. Then the corner of his mouth quirked up with a devilish smile. He slithered down her body and placed a kiss below her navel. His lips were wet and left a sensation of sticky coolness on the spot he kissed. He kissed lower, where her belly curved in. He kissed the tops of her thighs.

He kissed the inside of her knee. He dragged his mouth upward, kissing and licking the insides of her thighs, each time landing a little more quickly than the previous.

She dug her heels into the sand, afraid that if she moved he would stop. He didn’t stop.

~ ~ ~

Yuuko floated on her back in the waves. The sun was lower in the sky, casting a mellower heat in her discreet tropical paradise. With no reason for modesty, she swam naked in the waves. Clow dozed in the palm frond shade. He had earned the nap, but she was too energized to spoon with him. Instead, she played in the bright water.

They had not many any vows to each other. That in itself was liberating.

She wondered: was their time together inevitable? Had she always loved him? Did she love him now?

She turned over as a swell passed. The current helped her feet get purchase, and she stood up in the shallow water, dripping rivulets of seawater. She danced up through the lapping waves, back up the sand, and kneeled beside Clow to wake him.

Watching him sleeping, she felt mischief stir in her mind. Quietly, she scooped up the sand around him. Little by little, she mounded the heap over his sleeping form. She left his head clear. Amazed that he slumbered on, she piled up the sand until she buried Clow under a hill comfortable for sitting. She perched on the dome of sand and dripped water on his cheek from her wet hair.

“Cerberus!” he grumbled as he jolted awake. “Yue!” He turned his head to clear his face. At the same time, he wriggled to free himself of the sand. Finally awake enough to realize his predicament, he began to laugh. “Yuuko, you witch. Wait until I get free!”

She laughed with him. “Why do you think I’m sitting on you?”

“I’ll show you what becomes of that,” Clow promised with a wicked shine in his eyes. He unburied a hand and grasped her by the leg.

Yuuko shrieked. “Tentacles!” she screamed with giggles.

“Wench!” Clow cursed. He kicked at the sand, still working at getting free. Yuuko’s giggling as the dune shifted and crumbled beneath her seemed to motivate his determination. When the mound of sand collapsed completely, Yuuko took advantage of the moment to free her ankle from his grip. She ran.

He shot up with a burst of sand to chase after her. The sticky, damp sand covered his body. Yuuko howled with amusement and dissolved into another fit of giggles, which gave Clow opportunity to catch her. His hand came down, swatting her backside.

Genuinely offended, she rounded on him.”Clow!” She rubbed her posterior, dislodging sand.

Clow raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I apologize,” he said. His coy manner antagonised her indignance. “Take your retribution if you must.”

“I have sand everywhere,” Yuuko sulked.

“I can solve that,” said Clow. He took a path toward Yuuko to give her an apologetic kiss, then onward to where his heavy robe hung out of the way. Retrieving his Clow Book from within the folds of the robe, he opened it and called a Clow Card forth. “Sand, by our contract,” he commanded.

Clow’s magic never failed to impress Yuuko. When his magic circle brightened beneath his feet, she felt a surge of affinity for him, embellished by the afterglow of their afternoon tryst. Her own magic felt pulled toward his, but also seemed to reach for his magic to pull into herself.

From the paper Card, a spirit dressed in a style of Persia came into being. She danced a circle on light feet, causing the sand to rise, until her form became sand, too, a surge of sand dancing and twining around Clow’s and Yuuko’s bodies. Yuuko felt as if the sprite’s fingers combed her hair. The touch of magic moved gently through Yuuko’s hair and over her skin. As the wave slid away, it look the unwelcome coating of sand, leaving both Clow and Yuuko as clean as if freshly bathed.

Clow caught the magic in his hand again and placed the Card into his book with a murmur of thanks to it. Clow rubbed his forearm. “Brisk exfoliation,” he said in a tone of satisfaction.

“Is that the secret to your youthful appearance?” Yuuko asked. She took advantage of the freedom from sand to find her chemise and begin to dress.

“Something else,” Clow answered. His soft smile did not tease. He looked for his scattered clothing and began to mirror Yuuko in dressing.

“Clow,” Yuuko said, “you sleep like someone who knows he is watched over. Who is your ‘Cerberus’?”

Clow smiled to himself. “Would you like to meet my family, Yuuko?”

“I thought you said you had none,” Yuuko responded.

“Since my father’s passing, none of the usual kind,” Clow answered. “You have met one just now, and others at other times, but I would like you to meet Cerberus and Yue. I would like them to meet you.”

~ ~ ~

 


	5. Sun and Moon

For the purpose of opening a dimensional doorway, Clow released his magic staff to full size. He allowed himself a quick glance at Yuuko. Her way was far more elegant, but since Yuuko had never been to Clow’s estate, he had to lead the way himself. He soldiered forward, silently berating himself for the nurturing his need for her approval. Now was not a time to waver. He took in a deep breath of sea air and focused his concentration.

He drew out The Through and spoke his desire as he called her release. The fairy awoke from her dormancy with her usual grace, and with a sweep of her long sleeves opened a portal between the world in which they stood and the dimensional corridor that connected countless other worlds.

Yuuko looked into the corridor, alarm playing across her face. “THIS is how you travel?” she asked.

Clow answered by extending his hand for her to take in her own. “It’s safe enough when I am going home,” he commented. Keeping his mind focused on home, the place where his truest family awaited his return, came easier than breathing. When Yuuko took his hand, he took hold of it tightly and stepped through the portal. When she had stepped out of the world, he drew The Through to his staff, and the portal closed behind them, leaving Clow and Yuuko slowly falling in a corridor of rosey light.

On each side, small door-like rectangles shined as exits to other worlds. Yuuko looked around them, and Clow could see that her eyes were wide with dismayed amazement. Wisely, she kept silent, aware, no doubt, that criticism could have horrific repercussions where magic was concerned. At the correct passage, Clow stopped their fall. They twisted in magical space until their exit lay below them at an angle to pass through.

When they came out the other side, they stood at the inner gate to Clow’s home. He did not set the doorway at the front door or inside the house itself, in case of unauthorized use. At the moment, facing Yuuko’s verdict, he felt doubly glad to have a distance and privacy before he welcomed her into his house.

Before them, Clow’s gardens and pastoral home made an idyllic scene. Thick, dark woods grew at a distance. The smoke of other habitations trailed peacefully in the sky. Listening closely, a person might hear an echo on the hills of sheep, complaining to each other as they grazed in the gentle afternoon warmth. Nothing at all was out of the ordinary. A person with Sight would find no more than the usual population of fae, those on travels from Faerie and those that had found a cupboard of a country house to call their own.

It was, in many ways, indiscernible from northern England in Yuuko’s world.

“This is England… but not,” Yuuko noticed immediately. She turned to Clow with a terrifying smile set on her face. “We are native to different dimensions,” she concluded rightly.

Clow hoped that his sheepish expression would reduce her wrath.

“You never told me,” she accused. “You never said anything!” She huffed like the first gusts of a tempest. “And… that!” She gestured to indicate their passage through the dimensional corridor. “That! Is! Dangerous!”

“I rarely--” Clow started to explain.

“How could you use something so unstable?” she berated him further. “The worlds are a balance! Even a small tear--”

“Enough! Yuuko,” Clow answered, briefly losing control of his tone, “our ways are comparable, not identical. Now. If you are quite done telling me that I fall short of your expectations, can we proceed to my home?” He opened the low gate. He stepped through and stretched out his arm toward the manor house.

Yuuko crossed her arms. For a minute, Clow thought she might not come. 

“Give me time,” he said, “and I will explain why kept it from you.” 

“For years, Clow. You kept this from me for years.” She marched up the path, ill humor radiating in every step.

“Does it matter, so much?”

Yuuko sighed, and in that uncharacteristic sound, Clow heard all the disappointment in him that he feared. He tried again. “We first met in your dimension. You found me again when I happened to be again in your world.” He made a gesture of helplessness. “It didn’t seem to be relevant to any of our conversations.”

Her forehead creased with her frown. “How often have I confided in you about my home, my family? How many times did I bend your ear about what I had learned while using the Aurora Path? Would have been hard for you, then, to tell me?”

“It has, Yuuko,” Clow confessed. “Please understand, it is not my way to bare my life in confidences.” They reached the front steps, and Clow put his hand on the door latch. “That is why I have waited, until now, to bring you here.” His nerves competed with the pride he felt toward his celestial Guardians. “Yuuko Ichihara, welcome to my home.” He opened the door to lead the way in.

-o-

Cerberus saw Yue crouching by the upstairs parlor window. “What are you--”

“Hush!” Yue scolded in a whisper. “The window is open! They’ll hear you.”

“Who?” Cerberus stepped onto the sill and stuck his head out. “There’s a lady with Clow!”

Yue made a sound of exasperation. “That’s what I was telling you. Someone is with Clow!”

“I don’t think we know her.”

“No.” Yue stood up but remained against the wall.

“They look like they’re arguing.”

“Yes.”

“He’s bringing her in,” Cerberus narrated. “We should go meet her!”

“Wait!” Yue tried to stop Cerberus, but the Sun Guardian bounded out the window. His white, feather wings spread in the sunshine as he turned a graceful, downward slanting arc to land on at the front door, behind Clow and Clow’s guest.

Yue hurried out the parlor door and through the house. He slowed at the stairs to glide down them with elegance. Cerberus might be making a nuisance of himself, but Yue would do all he could to show himself in a way that would make a good impression on Clow’s guest.

Unfortunately, Clow’s guest was not looking at Cerberus or Yue. She was looking at Clow, her lips parted as if she wanted to speak but had no words. Her face held an expression of bare shock.

“It’s alright, Yuuko,” Clow said. Yue had never heard his master sound so sheepish and apologetic to anyone. Clow laid a hand on the lady’s shoulder, turned her toward Cerberus and Yue, and guided her into the house.

Cerberus sauntered up to Clow and butted his head against Clow’s hip. “You’re back,” he said.

“I am.” Clow took his hand off Yuuko and scratched the lion behind his ear, which Cerberus leaned in to. With a mere smile, Clow beckoned Yue closer. “Yuuko, meet my companions. Cerberus, Yue, this is my, ah... this is Yuuko Ichihara, the Witch of Dimensions.”

Yue bowed and took a step back to welcome Clow’s guest into their home. On good behavior, Cerberus executed a majestic bow of his own, one that rippled the powerful muscles under his golden coat. Eyes still wide from first impressions, Yuuko collected herself enough to return a respectful bow.

“We could use some refreshments.” Clow still sounded less sure of himself than he usually was. It was true that Clow rarely brought guests to the manor, but there must have been something more to this one. He led her to one of the rooms with a view to the garden, and there presented her with a sofa suitable for lounging, and a drink poured from a glass pitcher. He took a seat on the sofa opposite. Yue settled, kneeling, at Clow’s feet. Cerberus sprawled across the floor, where the sun poured warmth and light.

“Moon. And Sun,” Yuuko said, at last, after a long silence.

Clow perked up like a watered flower. “Yes,” he said, animated by his favorite subject. Yue rested his head on Clow’s knee, and immediately, Clow’s fingers caressed Yue’s hair. “Yue is aligned with moon magic and yin, while Cerberus is aligned with sun magic and yang. But both incorporate Western and Eastern magic properties, and they are guardians of my cards. It’s a total system, a complete reworking of disparate philosophies. Do you see?” he asked. He leaned in a little toward Yuuko.

“You’ve kept so much from me, Clow,” she said softly.

“That I wish to show you now,” he answered.

“Do they have their own will?” Yuuko asked him.

Clow smiled. “Cerberus. What do you think of that question?” he asked his sun guardian.

“Cerberus has an abundance of free will,” Yue couldn’t resist saying. It made Clow laugh, and Yue felt a frisson of warm satisfaction.

Cerberus huffed. “Clow asked _me_ ,” he whined, “not you.”

“Yes, I did,” Clow said. Laughter was still in his voice. “Please, Cerberus, go ahead.”

Cerberus yawned. He was showing off his teeth, baring them without being openly hostile. He twitched his wings. “I’m loyal to Clow,” he said. “I think my own thoughts and do what I want, though. Even Yue is more intelligent than most people who are born in the usual way. Clow made us to be ourselves.”

Yuuko smiled. “I’m pleased to meet you, Cerberus,” she said. “And you, too, Yue. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” She turned her attention to Clow. “No one else has done this,” she said.

“No,” he agreed. His smile was the cat’s, with a mouth full of canary. He relaxed, stretching out on his furniture, at last, in his usual manner. “No, I’m the only one to succeed.” His smile was fully focused on Yuuko. “More wine?”

“How about a game?” she offered. “We should play something to get better acquainted.” She observed Yue, briefly catching his eyes, then Cerberus. She smiled, and suggested, “Something everyone can join in?”

“I like that idea,” said Cerberus.

“As do I,” Yue agreed. However, he felt wary about the way Yuuko had looked at him and Cerberus, and about the unspoken thought behind her smile.

“Let’s include the cards,” Cerberus suggested. “Have you met them, Yuuko Ichihara?”

“Just ‘Yuuko’ is fine,” she said. “I have met a few. So they are like you?”

Clow straightened up. “Not exactly,” he disagreed. “The cards are more elemental. They won’t mind joining us as playing cards.”

“So are they divided between you, sun and moon?” Yuuko asked Cerberus and Yue.

Yue answered, “Yes, each is aligned with one of us.”

“Then I have a game in mind,” Yuuko said.

“What does the winner win?” Cerberus asked. “There’s gotta be a prize.”

Clow gave Yuuko a sly look. “What do you think, Yuuko? I think I know what I want.”

“You’re so sure you’ll win?” she asked.

“Of course. They’re my cards,” he responded.

Something about the way Clow and Yuuko were looking at each other bothered Yue. He couldn’t put a name to it. “We should play in teams,” Yue stated. “I will be on Clow’s team.”

“No fair,” Cerberus complained. “Why are you with Clow? I should be with Clow.”

Yuuko cut in. “No, he’s right,” she said. “You and I will be Red, and Clow and Yue can be Black. Each side has both yin and yang that way.”

“I play to win,” Cerberus warned.

“So do I,” Yuuko agreed with a light laugh. “Is it settled?”

“You haven’t name the prize, or even the game,” Clow said.

“If there is a prize, there must be a penalty,” Yuuko answered. “The game rules will be simple. We’ll take turns guessing if a card is sun or moon. If you guess correctly, you get to apply a restriction  or condition on the other team for one round.”

“But we know which cards are moon or sun,” Yue said.

“That is why you two may not guess. You will decide the condition if your teammate guesses correctly.”

“But Clow will know, too,” Yue began.

“As will I, because my powers are moon magic,” Yuuko said. There was a distinct twinkle in her eyes. “That is the importance of the conditions you decide.”

Yue frowned, but Cerberus chuckled. “Both of you were going to cheat anyway, weren’t you?” the lion intuited.

“Not cheat,” Clow demurred. “So those are the rules. Prize and penalty?”

“The teammate of the winner will pay the price of winning,” she said. “And the prize will be… a wish, if Team Black wins.”

“And if Team Red wins?”

“A cake!” Cerberus declared. “The biggest cake. That’s what we should win.”

“I don’t bake,” Yuuko said, aghast.

“Don’t worry,” said Clow. “Yue and I will win. But if we didn’t, you would only have to pay the penalty for cake.”

Yuuko hummed a noise of amused consideration. She watched Clow closely as he reached into an inner pocket of his robes and drew out the Clow cards. He leaned forward, holding the cards between his hands.

“Let’s get started,” he said.

-o-

  
  
  



End file.
